Fitting end to a great campaign

Nation 01 Jul 2019 Kindness Tour Hits the East Coast Nation 02 Jul 2019 Student Kindness Ambassadors take the lead to prevent bullying in their schools. Related News Promoting kindness: (Fifth from left) SP Setia Group Branding and Communications manager Jocelyn Lee, (front row, grey shirt) Tuaran District Education Office counselling officer Stanley Missun, Sabah State Education Department’s Chief of Discipline Unit Ahmad Hakim Jaafar, Education Ministry’s Education Policy Planning and Research Division assistant director Nor Hisham Ismail with students and teachers at the Kota Kinabalu workshop. KUCHING: The national #StandTogether Kindness Tour, which has recruited almost 3,000 students and teachers as “kindness ambassadors” in 13 states and two Federal Territories, has come to a close.It wrapped up yesterday after completing its last leg: a series of workshops in Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan.Its final stop saw around 200 students and teachers gathering at SMKA Sheikh Haji Othman Wahab, Kuching, and learning how to spot and prevent bullying.“It was really great to learn about the difference between an ‘upstander’ and a ‘bystander’. We found out how important it is to stop bullying instead of just watching it happen,” said SMK Batu Lintang student Jennifer Sharon Anakin Edwin, 16, whose school was one of those selected to participate in the Sarawak workshop. AdChoices广告“I can’t wait to get back to my school and present what we learned to all my schoolmates. Hopefully, this will make my school and community kinder,” she said.The workshops, organised by Digi with support from International Medical Uni­versity (IMU), aimed to foster kindness in the Malaysian school system by educating tea­chers and students on topics such as counselling, bullying prevention and student engagement.Students also raised concerns about the many young people who had experienced cyberbullying and shared their plans for becoming kindness ambassadors in their schools.SM Maktab Sabah student Mohammad Ya­­zid Aqeel, 16, whose school hosted the Sabah workshop, wants to start a peer mentoring group and encourages his school to participate in bullying and cyberbullying prevention programmes.“The most heartbreaking part is that there are bully victims who eventually become depressed and take their own lives,” said Yazid. “Many times, the bully has been picked on before as well, which is why we need to help them manage their emotions.”Teachers attended a separate session during the workshops, which encouraged them to come up with ideas on how to facilitate the students’ efforts in spreading kindness.SMK Lajau teacher Janet Rose Tanakinjal said the workshop also taught her to focus on the person rather than his actions, when it came to dealing with bullying in schools.“I plan to spread the word about kindness by acknowledging students’ good deeds, and teaching them the value of saying please and thank you. It won’t cost a sen but needs a lot of patience and understanding,” said Tana­kinjal, who attended the Labuan workshop in SK Pekan Satu.The Kindness Tours were an extension of the annual #StandTogether campaign initiated two years ago by R.AGE and SP Setia, along with partners such as Unicef Malaysia, Digi and 100% Project, with the aim of ending bullying in schools through promoting kindness.“One of the goals of SP Setia’s Caring School Programme is spreading kindness, and we are glad to see it has gained wider traction among the students and teachers through these workshops,” said Adelene Wong, head of SP Setia Group Branding and Commu­ni­cations.Students and teachers are also taught and given the resources to execute a condensed version of the awareness workshop in their own schools.“We hope that by raising students’ digital resilience, we will see them mitigating situations of cyberbullying by taking steps to protect themselves and creating an online community that is both kind and inclusive of other­­s,” said Philip Ling, Digi head of Sus­tainability.“Hopefully, this can be a sustainable target that’s continuously championed and driven by student leaders and ambassadors that we have trained.”For more updates and educational resour­ces from the #StandTogether campaign, go to standtogether.my. Related News Nation 16 Apr 2019 Digi joins Kindness Week challenge {{category}} {{time}} {{title}}